Ibaka’s timing on blocking shots is flawless. He almost never jumps too early to block a shot. He looks like he could be a premier shot blocker once he earns more minutes in the NBA. And I belive he has a 42″ vertical jump, and for a 6’10″ guy that is flat out amazing leaping ability. That is actually an incredible vertical for any player regardless of size, but for someone that is 6’10″, that is almost unheard of. So he can get up and block just about any shot that comes near him.

His offensive game should come around quite nicely too. He has good range w/ his shot for a big man and can step out and knock down a mid-range jumper and he can occasionally step behind the 3 pt and line and knock down a trey. And obviously he can throw down dunks and score points off of offensive rebounds.

I’ve seen Ibaka comparisons to Shawn Kemp, which I think are too lofty of expectations. I just think that’s too much for him to live up to, b/c that is basically saying he will turn out to be a hall of famer, which is just too far of a stretch right now. But if all the stars align, he has the right work ethic, strong desire and the passion to keep getting better and if OKC keeps developing him at a nice pace, he could turn out to be something very special. I do like to compare him to a better version of Tyrus Thomas on down the line though, which I think is a more realistic comparison than Shawn Kemp. I think he has about the same athletic ability as Tyrus did when he first broke into the league, but I just think Ibaka has better work ethic and has more desire to get better than Tyrus, which is why I compare him to a better overall version of Tyrus Thomas in the future.

I would like to see him bulk up just a bit more and put on another 10-15 pounds or so of muscle to help him bang with post players inside and score more in the paint, but I don’t want to see him put on more weight than 10-15 pounds b/c I don’t want too much weight that it would hinder his leaping ability or slow him down too much, b/c he has too good of leaping ability and speed for a big man, I would hate to seem him lose a step if he put on alot more weight.

Nice article, I really enjoyed it.

Man, part of why Green’s it seems like Green leaves a lot of jump shooters open is because of his responsibility to rebound, or at least box out. With his playing an undersized “four,” his rebounding responsibilities (especially for this team, with a “soft” center) see increasing scrutiny. It’s better that he allows a jump shooter an open look (depending, of course, upon the shooter and the situation) than an offensive board/put-back.

That’s just my $0.02, anyway…

I guess they are testing the heck out of this starting lineup. I can understand that but when will they basically know what they’ve got, enough to make a decision? Do they need 500 minutes, 1000, or this season and next season? It is a good question. We’ll see after 500 or 1000 minutes if they should be able to answer the question.

Westbrook, Harden, Thabo, Collison and Ibaka has been used about 35 seconds. And went 1=0. Woohoo! When will they check it? Are they even lookin gfor the opportunity to do so? I don’t know how thoroughly they’ve thought about lineups and testing them.

I’d be interested to see how a Westbrook, Harden, Thabo, Collison and Ibaka lineup would do over a long period of time as the second unit.

Just 1 lineup over 100 minutes of Green without Durant. Just 2 lineups over 100 minutes of Durant without Green. Just 2 variations over the threshold with Krstic period.

1 lineup over 100 minutes with Ibaka. None with White.

This isn’t a lot of data variety to build a stronger future off of.

1 lineup used over a 1000 minutes,
2 near 200 minutes
3 more over 100 minutes
and the rest of 1600 minutes used on lineups used under 100 minutes and most of them really dinky.

I don’t think you can tell that much from a lienup used under 100 minutes for a season so at this rate they’ll end the season something decent about 6 lineups.

But remove the ones that have Ollie and Thomas and you’re down to 4. Remove Collison if you think they’re going to go that way and you’re down yo knowing more than a little about 3 lineups. For a whole season’s time.

It is hard to know much about many lineups but if you do this

Minutes # Lineups
1000 1
500 1
250 4
100 8
800 All other

you learn more than a little about 14 lineups.

To experiment much more with others you have to pull time from the top lineups. If they are strong lineups you wouldn’t want to do that. The current starting lineup is near neutral right now, far better than it was but how important is it learn about other lineups?

Harden and the other starters is at less than 12 minutes used. Are they going to let the season go and test that less than 50 minutes? That strikes me as crazy. If they are waiting, what are they waiting for? Failure? Throw out a number of tiny lineups and you can make more time for this lineup and at least a few others.

If you don’t you’ve wasted a significant opportunity.

Not much more than 10 minutes of Harden with White or Ibaka. Is he going to play with them in the future? If yes, when are you going to test it? You don’t have to use it but that would be limiting to not and I’d think you’d want to look at it at some point.